My Freelander 2's autobox failure should have been prevented by a recall but I wasn't notified - what should I do?
Further to my earlier correspondence regarding autobox failure on my August 2007 Freelander 2 at 35,000 miles, the Land Rover dealer wanted £3500 to fit a new box and £2300 up front to buy it. The dealer that has now repaired my vehicle and had it on its database mentioned that there was a Service Action on the gearbox that “would have been carried out had they done its service”. I asked if I should have been advised of this and they said “no”.
I have now got a copy of this service action (Q106) that states clearly that they are requested to contact the owners of 2007-2010 vehicles to “Reconfigure transmission and differential control module”. The issue date was 6 December 2010 and expiry date 31 August 2012. I was not contacted about this. At the moment I am awaiting a response from Land Rover customer Services on an ex-gratia payment, but perhaps this puts things in a different perspective. Your advice on how to proceed would be helpful.
I had two reports in rapid succession. 9 December 2011: One report of automatic transmission failure on four-year-old Freelander 2 at 35,000 miles (yours). 21 December 2011: Another report of automatic transmission failure on a four-year-old Freelander 2, this one at 70,000 miles.
But if the owners did not have the cars serviced at their local dealers, then how would the dealers even know they owned the cars? This was not an official safety recall made via DVLA keepership records. It was an instruction to dealers to modify customer’s cars. You may be in for some goodwill and you may even have a case against the original supplier that if dealers were instructed to make the modification, the transmission was not "of satisfactory standard" in the first place, quoting the Supreme Court ruling in Clegg v Olle Anderson (trading as Nordic Marine) 2003.
But if the owners did not have the cars serviced at their local dealers, then how would the dealers even know they owned the cars? This was not an official safety recall made via DVLA keepership records. It was an instruction to dealers to modify customer’s cars. You may be in for some goodwill and you may even have a case against the original supplier that if dealers were instructed to make the modification, the transmission was not "of satisfactory standard" in the first place, quoting the Supreme Court ruling in Clegg v Olle Anderson (trading as Nordic Marine) 2003.
Answered by Honest John on
